Vault Cracker
by HPman213
Summary: A man is sent to the Capital Wasteland to open up Vault 101, unless the Lone Wanderer can stop him.
1. Welcome to the Wasteland

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Fallout series. Also, this is my first story so it might not be the best. Anyways, enjoy. **

The sun began to rise over the Capital Wasteland, shedding an orange glow over the waters of the Potomac River. The overpass provided a perfect view for anyone wanting to forget the horrors of the world they inhabit for the first hours of the day. But, the man standing on the overpass wasn't there to enjoy the view; he was there to get his bearings and figure out his relative location. His name was Price, and he was a mercenary; but not just your regular Talon Company asshole. No he was trained, and was sent out on a specific job with a massive pay. The job wasn't to kill anyone, well not just one person anyway; and the pay was exactly 10 million caps.

Price didn't really know anything about who hired him, but he was contacted by someone who said he represented a man named Eaton, or someone along the lines of that name. He was picked for one reason, he had the knowledge and the capabilities to break into anything. And his employer made the job very clear, locate some underground bunker called a "vault" and open the door. That does seem simple enough but those vaults were built to last, and were hidden better than you could possibly imagine.

Price's first stop was a small settlement on the Potomac called Arefu, and small was an understatement. Four buildings on a crumbling overpass, and an elderly man guarding the entrance who looked about 60. "Hey! Who are you stranger?" The man asked. Price didn't have time for chit-chat "That's not important, what is important is what you know about a subject my employers want very badly." Price hoped the straightforwardness and his tone would get the information he needs. "Well that depends, what information do you need and as long as you don't plan on using that information for a nefarious purpose I can give it to you." This old timer was smarter than he looked so Price planned his response carefully. "Well, I need a certain location revealed to me but that can come later. So what's your story my friend?" Based on this man's facial expression, Price knew he had won. "Names Evan King, I grew up here and well that's pretty much it. I sort of inherited this town and now I keep it safe. So what about you?" Not expecting this, Price had to come up with a bullshit backstory. "My names Price, I grew up a few miles to the south and set out to explore the Capital a few years ago. But anyway that information, I need a location of a vault."

Evan had a feeling that's what Price wanted, vaults were treasure troves and everyone wanted to get inside. But someone paying a scavenger to find one, that's peculiar. "Well I don't know where any of those are I'm afraid, but there are a few towns around here where someone might know." Shit, a dead end. At least there's some lead. "Well where are these towns?"

Price left Arefu with three new locations; Big Town to the south, Megaton to the west and a supermarket further to the south. Big Town, sounds like a good place to start. As Price walked up to the settlement he noticed the state of disrepair on every building. "If the people here are actually surviving, they're only reaching the bare minimum." He mumbled to himself. He approached the small ditch in front of the entrance and crossed the bridge spanning the "gap". As he walked into the town he heard the familiar "click" of a hunting rifle coming off of safety. "Whoa there, best you back the fuck up before I put a hole in your head!" Price completely neglected the armed guard at the entrance. Wanting to avoid confrontation, Price complied and backed up a few feet; waiting until the gun was only a few inches from his head.

In one swift motion Price ripped the gun from the guard's hands, and delivered a powerful kick to his shin. With a cry of pain, the guard dropped to the ground. Price quickly covered his mouth and dragged him behind a small wall in front of the nearest house. "I need information now, and you better tell me. I have roughly 90 seconds until your buddies realize you're not at your post. So I need this information fast if you want them to find you with JUST a broken shin." With a terrified look on his face, the guards' moans of pain quickly transformed into words. "Okay, okay! Holy shit this hurts, what do you need to know?" "I need to know where the nearest vault is, and if you don't tell me I have certain ways to make you." "Vault? Yeah, yeah vault. Okay I overheard one of our scouts talk about some cave near Megaton, my best guess is that's where it would be. I told you what you wanted to hear right? You're not going to kill me right? Hey, hey what the fuck's that?! Is that Med-X? Oh dear God!" Before he could get any louder, Price administered just enough Med-X to shut him the hell up for about twelve hours. Hopefully when he woke up he wouldn't remember any of their little "meeting".


	2. Something Strange

**Disclaimer again: I do not own the Fallout series. Sorry if this chapter's a little short, but there is a fight scene coming soon.**

For the Lone Wanderer, it was just a normal Tuesday. Waking up, getting dressed, and leaving his house in the town of Megaton for another day of exploring and making the Wasteland a better place. First on his list of places to check up on, was Big Town. As he walked up to the small town, he noticed something was off. The regular entrance guard Dusty was nowhere to be seen, and nobody was on the streets. Incredibly confused, the Wanderer walked into the town's clinic. Everyone was crowding around a hospital bed, and on that bed was Dusty. "What the hell happened to Dusty?" He hoped that it was just a simple accident. After saving the town from Super Mutants only a few days ago, it would be hard to believe that the town would go shit that fast. "We just found him like this!" "We don't know!" "Someone did this!" Were among the barrage of responses he was hit with. Realizing nobody here would be of any help he pushed through and bent down to question Dusty. "Dusty, take your time and tell me what happened to you." After looking around dazed for a few seconds. It became obvious that Dusty was just coming out of a temporary Med-X induced coma. "Well some guy came walked past me, so I pointed my gun at him and ordered that he backed up. He did but pulled the gun from me, BROKE MY LEG, and demanded that I reveal the location of something." The Wanderer was perplexed as to why torture was needed for something that simply could have been requested. "That's good to know Dusty, now tell me what location he wanted to know about." Dusty thought long and hard trying to beat the Med-X and suddenly blurted out "He wanted to know the nearest something, maybe it was a town, I can't remember; sorry man." As the Wanderer started to exit the room Dusty grabbed his arm, "WAIT! I remember what I told him! I told him that I don't know where it is but to look around Megaton. I hope that helps."


	3. Getting a Tip

**Once again, I don't own the Fallout series. Well here's another chapter to the story, I hope you all enjoy what I've posted so far.**

After about an hour, Price was in Megaton. Instead of directly going to the hills around the town and wandering like a dumbass for hours, he decided to get some more information. And there was no better place to bet this information than the town bar, people love to drink socially so a bar would be a logical place to for drunken explorers and scouts to spill their secrets. Price immediately walked up to the bar and sat down. "Hey barkeep, I need to talk to the owner." "Yeah sure, let me go get him." After a few minutes muffled yelling could be heard from the back room and eventually the barkeep returned with an older man. "I'm the owner, what the hell do you want?" "My name's Price, I'm looking for information." "So is everyone, but with me information costs caps so fork em' over or stick it!" It's hard for Price to contain his laughter at how cheap this bastard is. "Okay, there's 200 caps in it for you if you tell me where the nearest vault is." "Well, I don't know but a kid who lives on the hill near the gate came from one. Maybe he knows, now give me my money." Price hands him 50 caps. "Since you didn't tell me what I really needed, that's all you get." Price walked towards the house on the hill, ready for anything.


	4. First Contact

**Once again, I don't own the Fallout series. Well here's another chapter to the story, I hope you all enjoy what I've posted so far.**

It was later in the evening, and the Wanderer was ready to go home and sleep. As he put they key into the lock he noticed that the door was slightly ajar. Drawing his .44 Magnum he slowly crept into the small atrium. The unmistakable dark from of a man could be seen sitting in one of the chairs near the staircase. "Hello my young friend, you weren't home so I let myself in; I hope you don't mind." Completely shocked that someone has the balls to break into HIS home, he stood silent. "Whoever you are you have some nerve coming into my house unannounced!" Price stood up revealing his 6'4" frame, and turned on the lights. "I need you to tell me where the nearest vault is, and you better be honest." Setting down his backpack, the Wanderer prepared for a fight. "Fuck you buddy, get out of my house now."

Before he could react, an incredibly powerful punch landed on the left side of his face. Staggering backward, the Wanderer backed into a wall. His opponent is much larger than him so the Wanderer knew he had to adjust his fighting method. Dodging another swing, he countered the punch with one of his own. Price felt the pain in his ribcage as the kid countered his punch. But Price was still stronger, grabbing his much smaller opponent and flinging him into the refrigerator across the room with a massive crash. The Wanderer felt intense pain in his right wrist, realizing it's broken he scrambled behind the staircase and attempted to find a way out of this. "Okay, okay you win! I'll tell you what you need to know." "Sorry kid, no dice." Price's hands reached around the staircase and ripped the Wanderer out from behind them and slid him across the floor. As he slid, his wrist felt more and more numb with each passing second. His slide came to an end when he slammed into his bobble head storage shelf. Price slowly walked over toward the Wanderer, grabbed him by the front of his shirt and repeatedly punched him in the face until the consciousness faded from him. Grabbing his Pip-Boy and going to the "Data" section and then to "World Map" found what he was looking for, Vault 101.

After cleaning the blood off of his shirt to the best of his ability, Price left Megaton. But instead of going directly to the vault, he headed in the opposite direction to meet the contact sent by his employer. Shortly after arriving at the designated location, Price met his contact. "Ah, Mr. Price good to meet you. Mr. Eaton sends his regards, I assume you acquired the coordinates to the vault?" Price removed a piece of scrap paper from his pocket. "Yeah, the coordinates are on this. I had to beat the shit out of some kid to get them but I got them either way. Now I just need to unlock the door, then your guys go in and I get paid." Taking the paper, the contact replied. "Precisely, please remember to notify us BEFORE you begin breaching the vault." And with that, the two separated. And Price headed out to take care of the job. Before that kid woke up and tried to interfere.


	5. Update, plus new story!

**This is an update chapter, and will be removed before the final chapter of Vault Cracker is uploaded.**

Hello viewers of Vault Cracker! I hope you have all enjoyed the story so far, and I hope that you continue to read it. The progress of the next chapter of Vault Cracker however, will be delayed for a while. Due to school and the upcoming State EOI Tests and the fact that I'm currently working on another fan-fiction, the new fan-fiction is called The Meeting and is a Fallout New Vegas fan-fiction this time; although it's a relatively new fiction and doesn't have the amount of content that Vault Cracker does, I hope that you all will give it a chance.

But I haven't forgotten about Vault Cracker at all, in fact I'm working on the final chapter right now alongside The Meeting. And after Vault Cracker ends, there will be a sequel. So hopefully you continue to read Vault Cracker, and go read The Meeting.

-HPman213


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